Five Frugal Things

Our evening meal last night was what I call a “Tidbit Dinner.” I took all the leftovers from the fridge and portioned everything into small amounts and served them as a single complete meal. (Think of it as a fancy tasting menu.) The four of us split a single piece of homemade pizza, leftover pesto tortellini, refried beans with homemade salsa and penne with marinara sauce. I also treated myself to the last half-cup or so of white bean soup. Our refrigerator is now free from half servings of leftovers and my family got served a tasty and decidedly frugal meal. Avoiding food waste is something each and every one of us can put a focus on. When so many Americans go without, it’s simply unethical to waste perfectly good food.

My son had his weekly tutoring at the library yesterday and I was feeling aimless when it came to choosing anything to read. Instead of randomly pulling books from the shelves, I asked on The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook Group for recommendations. Suggestions immediately came pouring in, and I ran around the library on a one-person scavenger hunt. In the end I brought home six books as well as a couple of DVD’s. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I love my library!

I stopped at Goodwill on my way home from dropping my son at school the other day and bought nothing. I was ostensibly there to photograph weird stuff for the blog, but it turns out I’d left my phone at home. (Goodwill is oh-so temptingly on my route home, but I try not to make a habit of it since I honestly want for nothing.)

I spent a few hours going through our filing cabinet to remove pointless papers. (I am a proponent of getting rid of stuff rather than buying storage solutions for excessive belongings.) It was a big ol’ walk down memory lane as I came across the most hilarious stuff like a babysitter instruction sheet for my now 19-year-old son. (Keep in mind I was working full-time night shifts at the time and pretty much in a psychotic daze.) Here are a few excerpts:

“Go ahead and just put food directly on the high chair tray. (Safety straps a must!) But if you put too much food directly on tray, he will brush everything onto the floor.”

“When tired, he’s cranky and falls down easily.” <— Love this!

“Cats are too friendly, don’t be afraid to be mean if they’re bugging you.”

5. I wore pajama pants while driving my son to school this morning in case I’d be tempted to pop into The Grocery Outlet to scout for deals. We have plenty of food at home and anything bought unnecessarily is wasted money, even if it’s cheap to begin with.

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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I did NOT preorder the super-cool $8000 sewing machine that I got an email about. Oh, I wanted to, but I A) don’t have $8000, and B) already have a perfectly good sewing machine that I hardly have a chance to use, C) have not decluttered the sewing room enough to invite something nice like that into it, and D) I DON’T HAVE $8000. See how I talked myself down from that ledge?

Having been in a sewing machine shop recently (to buy some oil for my 30 year old machine), I can see how easy it would be to be sucked into that vortex. Of course, my credit limit isn’t that high and my bank account would shriek in pain if I tried that stunt.

(1) Am about to hang laundry for approximately the zillionth time on the vintage wooden drying racks that DH brought home from various rental properties over the years (abandoned by tenants). Reused racks plus no fossil fuels expended on drying = win-win.

(2) All clothing suspended from said racks except socks and underwear will be secondhand purchases, and some of the rags we use in place of paper towels will be there as well.

(3) Just went for brief walk to refresh brain cells, and came home with three NY State deposit containers, several flattened aluminum cans for recycling, and 6 cents in change.

(4) DH went to local junk shop today and concluded that he didn’t “need” anything. Major win.

(5) I can relate to Katy’s paper sorting/walk down memory lane, as I did a similar cleanout about a month ago (the correspondence I’ve been saving from other people from 1972 to date). I did actually succeed in reducing the saved stuff by about two-thirds, and am now down to the things I won’t part with for blood or money.

My brother in law was coming over and asked about a couple of his favorite t-shirts that were coming undone. Told him to bring then along. It was simply poor manufacturing, so, I repaired both shirts and stitched another spot that was about to fail! He couldn’t believe I got it done so fast. Easy, peasy with the right tools and know-how!
Between them, my husband and his brother leveled the washer and dryer, and checked the venting on the dryer, moved the defunct water heater to an out of the way spot in the basement, rewired an outlet that was cross-wired and can now be safely used for my sewing machine. They also figured out what the dehumidifier needed to drain directly into the floor drain. This will make my life so much easier! The reservoir vibrates and drives me crazy! Also, I’ll no longer have to empty the reservoir! Gotta love my guys getting the to-do list TA-DONE!
I made dinner from scratch at home, even gravy!

We piped two non-working water heater tanks into our tankless water heater supply line, to serve as a passive pre-heat. If there’s room in your basement, mebbe the guys would consider giving that a try. It also gives us 70 gallons of water reserve in case there’s a water supply issue (as happens in our old northeastern town)

The light/fan in our bathroom had started making a lot more noise, while at the same time didn’t seem to move much air. We have a problem with over-humidity in the bathroom, and have put all the exhaust fans on a timers so we can easily turn them on for a few minutes after every shower (frugal because it limits the time to just what is needed, but also frugal because it costs a lot less to turn on the fan than to repair things ruined in the humidity). Anyway, since the fan stopped working, I thought we’d need a repairman or electrician to install a new one. Instead, hubby and I managed the replacement on our own! No easy task, since the old fan was incorrectly installed and *very* difficult to remove without taking down the whole ceiling. But we did it! I am so proud of us. 🙂

Homemade gravy is the best!
1. I refused the out of town tickets for a symphony series. I bought locally instead. Support those locals always!
2. I bought a flea comb for the dog instead of those chemicals put directly on her skin. We will see how it works.
3. In my minimalist quest, I did not buy any tchotchkes for my house at the local fair, even though I was tempted. I do not need another piece of pottery, glass vase, or candles.
4. I am considering coloring my hair at home instead of at the beauticians. Or, I have no color in it now and I might like it enough to go natural.
5. A local man is going to take my old chain link fence for yardwork. It helps both of us.

I was also undecided this week about going to the hair salon. It’s approx $110 for a deep conditioning, cut, color and tip but then I went to a yard sale and found a tube of deep conditioner for $1 and Walgreen’s had color on sale for $3.99, so I did it myself. Came out great I think. It should last about 6 to 8 weeks and then I’ll have to decide what to do. Now I have to decide about my mani/pedi. Such problems!!!

I made three Renaissance Faire costumes for my boys and my husband, and only had to buy two buttons! I had two buttons that could have been “borrowed” from a bag, but I didn’t want my toddler to chew on them and ruin them. The fabric was a mix of discarded curtains, pants and odds & ends of fabric.

Last night I was beyond tired, but pulled the “emergency rations” out of the back of the cupboard and avoided take out. Lunch today was based off of left overs!

-Today was free Jamba Juice from 9-11. I sent a message to our usual playgroup buddies and we met up at the mall for smoothies and let the kids play in the kids zone. We also used a previously purchased groupon for a playdate at pump it up for our kids last week.
-my son’s (free) weekly preschool playgroup is too far to be worth driving home for the two hours, so I have developed a bit of a routine. I drive to Voldemart because I usually get there when their priced for quick sale meat goes out, so I got our meat for the week there. I also added a stop at a bread outlet that sells the really good stuff at the price of the “it’ll do” stuff. We used that bread to do eggs and toast for a cheap and easy dinner.
– My parents offered to bring dinner for a barbecue at our place, and left all the leftovers. Mega score.
– my husband and I couldn’t afford to go on the group date our friends were doing, so I made us a separate dinner and dessert from the kids, and we borrowed a new movie (Unbroken) from my parents and did an at-home date night.
-We got a coupon for a free happy meal (no purchase necessary) in our junk mail. I asked our neighbors without kids if they weren’t going to use it, if they also got it could we have theirs. It felt a little tacky, but if someone asked me, it would have bothered me, so…. maybe not?
– Oh, and we won tickets to a wildlife park in an online giveaway. With our zoo membership, it will cost around $10 for 5 of us to go – usually it would cost nearly $50.

any time! I hate it because I get that they’re a big baddie… but I love it because we’re broke and they are the only shop around me that seems to be consistent about when they mark down their meat. we still try to do most of our shopping at winco.

I’ve been tempted to drive my daughter to school in my PJ’s some mornings but I always think “Watch it, this will be the day your car gets a flat on the way…” so I always put clothes on. Now my daughter drives herself to school with my car so I can stay in my PJs at home, where no one cares, even the cats 🙂

1) I wanted to do touch-up on our windowsills and thought I needed to buy white paint, but at the last minute I remembered that I had found a pint of white paint in my husband’s shed earlier this month. Located it and it was still 99% full.

2) It poured twice today so no need to water my garden AND my under-the-roof-line strategically placed bins collected mucho rainwater for me to water the garden with in the next few days.

3) Kinda frugal, in a sense: I bought my 2 living-at-home kids each a Racetrac Sodapalooza cup for $7.99 which gives them free refills on fountain drinks and frozen drinks through July 31st. Frugal because my daughter was buying bottles of lemonade anyway so now she’s not spending her money and also not throwing away/recycling several bottles or cans. Also, each cups turned out to have a bunch of food coupons in them, including several coupons for free items such as breakfast sandwiches, donuts… not too healthy but we all need a treat once in a while.

4) My new double-pane windows are wonderful and Energy-Star rated, something that the old, flimsy, single-pane windows definitely weren’t. HOWEVER, they now interfere with the TV signals that my indoor amped digital antenna was receiving and we lost our favorite OTA channels. I decided to try an outdoor antenna, which only cost me $6.99 on Amazon thanks to the $25 gift card I earned on Swagbucks a couple of days ago. I hope it works and we get our channels back!

5) My son’s cheap Alcatel phone (bought only a few months ago) kept on giving us problems (calling 9-1-1 without a way to stop the phone from doing that by itself is NOT a good problem to have!) so I decided to pass on my iPhone 4 to him and “upgrade” to a 5S. I ordered it used from an Amazon reseller. It was more than I would have ever wanted to spend on a phone but having my own fully-paid phone ensures that I don’t have to sign a 2-year contract with AT&T, which in turns results in my monthly plan NOT increasing by $25/month. So, to me, that’s frugal. Plus I told my husband and son that this was my Mother’s Day present so no other expenses will be incurred for that occasion. I feel vaguely guilty but, dang it, I reuse water from the shower to flush the toilets, never get my hair cut, don’t wear make-up, don’t get manicures, we don’t go out to eat rarely ever, don’t have cable, I stay home most days, cook all dinners from scratch, coupon, etc, etc, so I AM going to enjoy treating myself once in a while! My iPhone 4 lasted me 4 years (I think I said 5 on my blog but that was my bad math showing) despite getting dropped in the toilet once (and then rinsed off because I thought it was gross that it had fallen in after I had peed and didn’t think that rinsing it might cause even more problems… thanks to whoever thought of using rice to dry electronics!) so it’s not like I upgrade electronics willy-nilly. (Can you tell that despite my protests I STILL feel guilty about upgrading my phone?! Aaargh.)

1. Chopped up three sprouting onions; using the green bits as a scallion replacement in tonight’s Pad Thai.
2. Picked up more reading material and DVDs at the library, dropped off a honking sack of plastic grocery bags, and donated two empty cereal boxes to whatever it is the kids’ dept. is gearing up for (I pick up their wish list regularly…)
3. Collected more empty mesh bags from the apples, onions, and oranges I bought this week; I will be cutting them into strips to crochet into the Swiffer mophead cover I’m going to make. Others will be made into beads.
4. Signed up for a free craft room organizing webinar for 5/30. which gets me a 10% discount for the company sponsoring it, as well as an entry to win $150 of stuff from them.
5. Entered a trivia contest yesterday through our downtown business association and won $10 in Downtown BG Bucks, which are spendable like cash in about 40 different stores (and since they don’t expire and I’ve been collecting them from various contests and promotions, I have enough now to buy something really nice!)
6. (Ok, overachieving this week…) Complained about an incorrect order at BK, and online about woody asparagus stems in a frozen veggie bag and a new yogurt flavor I didn’t like, and got 2 free sandwiches, a coupon for a new veggie bag, and a coupon for a free yogurt. Score!

1) Treated by daughter to a surprise breakfast egg Mcmuffin yesterday on her way to school as I had a coupon I had filled out from the receipt survey I did, nice change from our usual rushed granola bar and banana in the car on the way to school. 😉 I shamelessly completed the new receipt from this purchase to have available as another breakfast surprise in May sometime.

2)Thank you, thank you, thank you for the Redbox code 🙂 Have rented several movies and intend on renting one a day until the end of April which should get us through our list of movies we want to see. Last night rented Into The Woods for my 12 year old daughter who wanted to see it – I couldn’t get into it and stopped watching at about 45 minutes into it. Didn’t feel guilty at all since it was FREE . Did the same with the penguin movie. Tonight we are watching The Theory of Everything.

3) After walking one of the clients dogs after school/work today stopped at McDonalds as my daughter had a free large fry from school she received – did not succumb and order anything else, yeah! (if you are noticing a McDonalds “trend” we usually don’t go there maybe once a month if that, my daughter is loving the coupon and survey for sure).

4) I have been doing the Swagbucks team challenge this week which has helped me add a lot of bucks, not as many as some but I have met my goal for each day. Heading towards earning that $25 gift card, I’m over 1,500 points. Keep seeing posts to do the surveys but I find to me they seem like an invasion of privacy, guess I have to work on that.

5) Didn’t go the dollar store today to pick up liquid soap we needed as I knew I would end up buying more stuff we wouldn’t need (love the dollar store) so I took the new bottle of liquid soap I had on hand and split it with the old one so now I have one for the kitchen too. Same thing for the grocery store this week – did not go to Meijer as I knew I would buy more than I needed but did go to a local store and only spent $15 just picking up the few things we needed, have been eating out of the freezer – frozen soup, etc. , this week.

6) Taking a daughter and a friend to the library tonight for a cute program on terrarium making – they supply all the plants, etc., she is really looking forward to it. LOVE my library too. I work in the library bookstore volunteering selling the donated used books. I always end up walking away with a book or two I can’t resist but I figure for 25 or 50 cents I am worth it. The trouble is I now have three stacks of books I haven’t read but really want to – never enough time or I am always reading the library books because there are deadlines, lol.

7) Very excited I deposited today a check from the consignment shop for $43 – not a lot but every little bit helps and I got to declutter stuff I was not using that was sitting in the garage waiting for my garage sale that never happened last summer.

8) Was VERY tempted by AT & T in the mail today to get our cable back but I tore up the offer! I miss my DVR 🙁

9) Tomorrow a co-worker is buying pizza for some students and told me to not bring lunch as it was on her, sweet.

1. Made Katy’s Black Bean Burgers for dinner along with the Frugal Girl’s Sautéed Green Beans in Garlic and my husband loved it. I loved it!
2. Eating dinner at home more and more now that we are fully moved in and loving where we live. And paying cash for any new items we need to buy. Will be hitting up the thrift stores and garage sales this weekend for the furniture we are looking for.
3. Washed out my Ziploc bags and they are drying in the drain.
4. Talked with my husband about our new upcoming bills and saving for retirement. New plan that he is agreeing to, so hopefully we’ll be able to retire in 10 years and not 15! And we will stay ahead of the game when it comes to paying bills.
5. Have been making some large purchases that go along with a new house (can you say new A/C?) but one of them has not been a new Lear jet!

– Worked a long shift today and brought home leftover beef brisket, vegie lasagna, and a chocolate peunut butter bar! Dinner was a big salad with brisket-yum!!
– My boss asked me to stop and pick up two lattes for her. I had a Starbucks gift card someone gave me that I haven’t used. I used it for her coffees and she gave me cash.
– Stopped at a thrift store on the way home and bought a Pendleton short sleeved tee and a chico’s tank for $7 each – both had their original tags. Most importantly, neither are black like 90% of my clothing.
-No grocery shopping this week – using up what we have.
-Found the left over vegetable seed packets from 2014 and will use them up in the garden this year – no new seed purchases though I think I will buy some perennials for what I hope to become a cutting garden.

* Got the new Gretchen Rubin’s book. While buying a brand new book is not cheap (and I bought it only because it’s unlikely that my library will get it), I got it at 40% off.
* Redeemed pc points for 20$ groceries worth (free)
* Was invited to join in for a restaurant-lunch today and declined
* Got a bunch of organic produces from the reduced rack and froze them
* Did not spend any money on junk food in the last 10 days (one day at a time, it adds up)

1. We’ve been eating leftover pasta and minestrone soup all week. The pasta was a dish I made for a potluck we went to. It was delicious. No food waste.
2. I took several tubes of carmex that were half empty or have been accidently melted in the car and microwaved them. I combined the liquid to make full ones.
3. My mom came over this week and colored my hair for me. I’ve been doing this for couple years. It’s a nice savings. Now to learn how to cut it.
4. Hanging my laundry to dry.
5. Ordered carpet from Lowes. We opened a Lowes card to save the 5%. We’ll just pay it off next time we are there to avoid interest charges.

1. Our sister church is having it’s “Free Flea” on Saturday. I will go tonight to help with set up and sorting. I have 5 bags of clothes and books to take. The great thing is we get to “shop” after set up is done. Looking for more canning supplies.
2.Our other sister church did theirs last weekend and I have helped with set up for theirs for years. I took 6 bags of clothes and books to theirs. I came home with a North Face jacket and Orioles shirt for DS#1, a pair of much needed jeans for DH and a pair of shorts for DS#2. I brought home a dozen canning jars and a bag of vintage sewing supplies.
3. Used 5 of those canning jars to pressure can some baby carrots.
4. Bought 3 heads of cabbage at Aldis at 59¢ each to start my second batch of home fermented sauerkraut.
5. Continuing to use the woodstove because the weather had turned cold again. It went down to 38 degrees last night! I’m in Maryland not Minnesota and it’s almost May! Thankfully we still have a little bit of seasoned wood to burn.

Oooh, I forgot to add sold a DVD on Amazon for $30 that I bought at a church sale last month for $2. Shipping it off in all free packing materials- tape bought with Staples Rewards, foam sheet that comes from a surgical eye center that I get from my Freecycle friend who’s an eye surgeon, cardboard from a box from Aldis and a new mailing envelope from a stack gotten from Freecycle. The funny thing is my feedback is great for how I pack my orders!

When my son was at a different school, we used to call ’em MIPs (Moms in Pajamas). Clearly these moms weren’t concerned about being seen out and about since they were either walking their kids to school or getting out of the car to walk their kid(s) inside. Pajama pants would TOTALLY keep me from ever setting foot outside my car!

Katy, when I read that you cleaned out a bunch of unnecessary, old papers, it made me wonder if you were still trying the marie kondo method. How did that work for you?

Her method really spoke to me for dealing with actual STUFF like clothes, books, tchotchkes, furniture. I don’t think it’s especially useful for decluttering papers. And I have so much PAPER. Of course , maybe I’m just procrastinating, which is why I have too much paper to begin with. The vicious cycle of filing/not filing/weeding out.

I think I’ve walked over to the grocery outlet 3 times since I’ve been here since Sunday night. The deals are amazing. I am bringing a cheese back to my house because the expiration date is 2 months away( I usually ignore expiration dates on cheese anyway). DO I need it? No, but the price is too good to pass up and I will use it eventually.

I occasionally drove morning car pool in my slippers, those were the days.

1. I scored two large clumps of chives on Freecycle. We have given many things away that way, but have not received anything that way, until now.

2. I wore clothes I already owned to a special family event last weekend. I had bought a new top but realized I didn’t love it and would not get my money’s worth if I kept it. Back to the store it went. I didn’t care that my sister and niece had new dresses for the event. The older I get the more comfortable I am in my own skin. People attended in all states of dress.

3. All meals have been at home this week. The only grocery purchases have been beverages, produce, and on sale cereal (on sale, with and additional promotion and a coupon). We are working on reducing the stockpile and are making progress.

4. I did buy a Misto, at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I don’t want to buy “Pam” anymore so I broke down. In the long run it should save money, as well a be much more environmentally friendly. I used a (several year old) 20% off coupon plus a gift card that was 20%. That place is overwhelming, I found the Misto and got out as quickly as possible.

5. The local newspaper charged more than they promised for six months of weekend papers. I called to complain. I received a confirmation number for the overcharge refund. I also need to contact the rental car company I used last weekend. The agent tried to charge me for roadside assistance (over $25 for a 3 day rental), and claimed that was part of my reservation. When I went to pull up the confirmation email he changed his tune and took it off the contract. It felt sleazy to me, so I want to report him.

When I rented a car from Avis in France last time I went, I had the option of 2 types of insurance and I told them I wanted the cheapest one of the two (there are lots of car thefts and also they burn cars whenever they want to protest something, apparently, nowadays, so I do want some insurance for situations my credit card coverage wouldn’t cover). It was Christmas Day and I was there to take care of my dying stepmother and had to fly with 36 hours’ notice so my mind wasn’t on checking all the details of what I was signing. When I returned the car 2 weeks later, they had charged me for the most expensive insurance option. I tried to get them to change it but they told me I was s**t out of luck and I should have checked what I signed. I still regret not making a big deal out of it (I was in a hurry to get home, it’d been a horribly exhausting 2 weeks and they were right, I *should* have paid more attention to what I was signing…). I’m renting from Avis in France again this summer and I am not leaving their rental office until I have confirmed that the insurance option IS the cheapest one of the two and I have proof of it.

I was at my credit union today using the self serve coin counter and I did a Katy swipe of my hand at the bottom of the machine and found 30 cents. Another swipe through and I was rewarded with another 11 cents. Wow, I may have to go back every day!! LOL It was oh so dirty, but hey, 41 cents was worthwhile! The CU provided the hand sanitizer!

My car was out of wind shield wiper fluid so I stopped by Jiffy Lube and asked if they would top it off. I am a regular customer and they not only filled the wiper fluid, they also topped off my oil since it was low. I am due for an oil change, but I didn’t have time today. Besides, I didn’t have a coupon.

My sleep-addled brain can think of only one:
– I used the hot water from boiling macaroni, to boil the broccoli as well. This is notable because it meant planning ahead so the hot water didn’t go down the drain.

1. April in Virginia means that the heat hasn’t kicked on almost at all. This cold snap has actually required a bit of heat, but we’ve kept it set lower than usual.
2. My husband and I both ran out of steam Thursday night and decided to order in. We used the rest of a gift certificate we got for free for small business Saturday back in November.
3. I got a free swing set for our boys this week from a professor whos kids have outgrown it!
4. I applied for and got a stipend to cover most of my travel for an upcoming conference.
5. At this point in this pregnancy I have lost all semblance of a sweet tooth. I haven’t bought desserts or any kind of sweet stuff in weeks.